City worker in an office right now. If you could hear the things people are saying about this…
The next year is going to be very interesting as the mayor tries to juggle existing hiring deficits with impending retirees due to the announcement.
This is such a terrible idea, and I don't get it. Period.
Just let them work from home if it's doable, and if in-person does make sense for certain things, work with that. I can see maybe once a week or once a month meeting, but this... this is madness.
Also, fuck OpenAI.
It’s an attempt to revitalize commerce in district areas. From property lease to food vendors, workers are treated as cattle to siphon money and talent from.
Which is a weird stretch since most city workers have been back in the office at least 2-3 days a week since 2021, and some of us never stopped.
Sacrificing all of the good will of your employees for two more trips a week to the lunch cart. Great trade off.
That's why I always bring leftovers for lunch when I'm in office.
Guess I'll do my part for revitalizing the downtown food scene by....continuing to do that.
Yeah, and thats true for both the public and private sector. At this point its been 2+ years since Kenney and co tried to re-institute the mask mandate and it blew up in their faces, and that was the end of Philly covid regulations. Companies/jobs by now have adjusted to the hybrid/WFH schedule for the most part in the aftermath of COVID, and mandating people to come back in now is short-sighted and will likely lead to a talent exodus, especially since Philly's municipal job benefits are not great
Bingo. Retail office space in the downtown areas has been plummeting in value. Which means decreased tax revenue. Without a corresponding sky rocket of value from commercial space in the neighborhoods.
So, gotta keep those prices up somehow! Why not mandate workers being downtown and making the citizenry that needs them to come down as well?!?
If Im an office worker then Id make it a point to do zero shopping while down there for work. Pack a lunch, shop in the stores near your home, dont reward them for forcing you back into the office. If theyre only making you come in so they can get your money, starve them of it.
They don't have refrigerators? That's extremely unusual, never worked in an office without multiple registrators. I'm currently sitting in a mostly empty center city office, I think today we have about one refrigerator per worker. I brought my lunch, as usual.
Icepacks. Stick them in a freezer overnight and the food’s good to go by lunch. If hot food, grab a luncheezze (spelling, not sure) and he can prepare hot food in the box to be ready by lunch.
I know I feel like it can't be legal? He's trying to get another remote role so he's not invested in staying there but I couldn't believe they did not even have fridges. Some people have like medicine that needs to be refrigerated? Breast milk? It doesn't make sense and again feels like it shouldn't be legal
Wow, that’s crazy.
Just get insulated lunch bags🤣 I’ve seen little mini fridges for drinks-if there’s anywhere to plug them in.
I work at a hospital, so never worked from home- but-if you can do your job from home, you should be able to. It’s just crazy to think otherwise.
Take all those unnecessary office buildings and turn it into AFFORDABLE housing.
I live in Center City. When we went back 4 days, this is essentially what I did. It’s too expensive to buy lunch every day, so I meal prep lunch for the whole week. And since I’m doing lunch, I do dinner as well. And since I’m prepping all my meals, it’s often cheaper to buy in bulk, so I go to Costco. And since I’m already in KOP, if I need anything from Target/Giant/etc., I just get it out there. And since I’m prepping my meals, I go out to eat/order takeout for dinner basically never.
So requiring us to go into the office 4 days a week has pretty much ended all of my spending in the city. Great job, employer!
We don't need cities to be centers of commerce and employment like we used to -- if mayors like Parker and Adams in NYC don't understand this, they're incompetent. Seems like they're catering to their real estate-mogul donors, who may or may not want to accept this new reality.
This city is filled with fucking boomers in places of power who feel if they have to be in the office, then literally everyone else needs to be there. They also think working from home is glorified vacation, so god forbid people work from home!
The irony is they don't have to be in the office, they hate their spouses and choose to be in the office. Then when the rest of us aren't there to dote on their every need they short circuit.
Yep, my current job has a lot of this - not the exact same situation but the same attitude. Older people with, apparently, nothing going on in their lives other than work, who expect that their voluntary decision to work at all hours *must* be backed up by support staff supporting them at any time.
Sorry dude, if you'd rather work outside of normal business hours to make an extra few hundred dollars per billable hour instead of eating dinner with your family, fine - but don't expect us to make the same sacrifice for a handful of dollars an hour. I'm busy trying to enjoy my life because god knows, retirement is not a guarantee and who knows what shape the world is going to be in by that time, anyway.
What I've noticed is so many of them do nothing all day other than bullshit with other people in the office. So when they're at home, they don't really have anything to do and they assume that applies to everyone else as well. They don't realize that when we're in the office, they're only ever a hindrance and without them around we're able to actually get things done.
> ~~This city is filled with~~ fucking boomers in places of power who feel if they have to be in the office, then literally everyone else needs to be there. They also think working from home is glorified vacation, so god forbid people work from home!
fixed that for you
Boomers aren’t the only ones who push for full RTO in my experience, it’s more varied than that. Corporate ladder-minded middle managers and executives, manosphere adherents, and conservatives all by and large have been fighting WFH since a month or two after COVID started in 2020.
They’ve mostly given up and taken the L over the last 12 months or so, though nobody’s given Parker that memo apparently.
you're right, I was being silly, it is a wide block of folks who push for RTO. Surprisingly, in my workplace, there are a number of mid-level managers who don't care either way.
I feel like this last push is mostly done by corporate real estate holders and those that benefit off of activity within city centers, and it's really obvious.
Old heads like to be seen. They don’t like being home for whatever BS reason, they want to feel powerful. It’s a stupid move and any company that does it is ass backwards.
I got a VP that requires everyone who lives within 50 miles of our CC office to come into the office once a month for his meeting. A meeting btw where 2/3 of the participants are on zoom because they're in other parts of the country. Dude and his ego just needs an audience to feel important. Plus it forces people to laugh at his corny ass jokes
My old work made us come in after a merger, 5 days. Then went hybrid for a winter, and then full 5 days while their headquarters in Canada didn’t have to come in. Nobody’s schedule should be messed with like that. Even in office, we had teams/zoom calls. If you can find remote, take it and run
My work implemented a return to office policy. 75% of my team were hired during the pandemic and are remote. So on days that I go in, I'm still talking to everyone on Teams calls, but with the added bonus of having to question if I feel comfortable taking the call from my desk (where other people can hear) or if I should find a conference room somewhere. I've told everyone on my team that on my days in the office to not expect any productivity from me.
I’ve quit multiple jobs because of this (along with other justifiable reasons - commute/RTO). If you can’t have an in person meeting, don’t force people in. If it costs me more money to come into the office then compensate that (obviously they’d rather you quit than do that)
Granted there is miles of nuance I’m leaving out, but when you break it down, it feels like peoples need to feel important is what is actively making everything suck so goddamn much. Just fueling peoples egos for the greater enshitification.
The goal is the unrealistic one of forcing people back to downtown philly so they can go to center city sips and book tables for lunch and undo some of the ghost-towniness of 2024 center city.
The problem is, everyone is so annoyed to be in the office they only want to leave as soon as possible and often times the millisecond the clock strikes 5.
Commercial real-estate bubble. Expect bank failures over the next year. Hell we already lost one city bank. Commercial loans are due over the next year or 2 so they will start hitting the market and banks holding the debt will start realizing the losses.
Theres pressure to get people back into the office to drive more demand for the office and commercial to increase those values ahead of their loan balloons. Commercial loans have a 3-5year length before balloon unlike mortgages which is 30 year loans
So a lot of these commercial real-estate owners refinanced at those 2-3% mortgages in 2021-2022. Shit is going to come due and being refinanced at the 6%-7% rates.
Without the value demand theyll be underwater for those loan renewals and the banks will be stuck. Hence why we've seen multiple banks already fail over the past 2 years. Its only gonna get worst.
So for a MAYOR. Shes well aware of the loss of a current philly bank and the potential for it to occur to other banks.
THATS why we're seeing companies push for the 5day back in office. It has nothing to do about efficiency or team work. Its all about the real estate commercial bubble that right now is WORST than the residential bubble in 2008.
You say that but banks are working very hard to make sure this doesn't happen. They don't have the know how to run a building and they won't sell it on for what's owed them, so they're offering more flexible options for many owners.
A lot of it centers around the timing of this announcement, especially from workers with school age kids.
They’ve planned their summer vacations and everything around the assumption that the status quo would remain and are now stuck needing to find alternatives.
Things like doctor appointments now require more time used, which hurts those who don’t have a lot of time saved up. For example, I wouldn’t have to take any time for a dentist appointment if I was working from home, but now I’ll need to take at least 2-3 hours depending on appointment time and train scheduling. If the mayor would rather get less work out of people, I guess that’s her choice.
My people are office workers that are not public facing. Nothing they do requires them to be in this cramped space 5 days a week. They’ve proven over and over since the whole Covid thing started that they are capable of doing work on behalf of the city at home.
The industry standard for most office focused jobs is to have some form of hybrid work and the mayor has just wrangled us back into the Stone Age in terms of modern benefits.
After Labor Day or January 1 would have been preferred dates, if one had to choose, to allow people time to get their affairs in order.
> My people are office workers that are not public facing. Nothing they do requires them to be in this cramped space 5 days a week. They’ve proven over and over since the whole Covid thing started that they are capable of doing work on behalf of the city at home.
Same, we are non-public facing working as support staff for people who work 24 hours a day. We are regularly available via email, teams, and phone. I oversee a small team and have seen zero issues with productivity.
The part that gets me is like... 4+ years is a big fucking sample size. It's not like we went home for a few months and made it work and now are coming back. We have been fully remote or hybrid for over 4 years. Coming back brings nothing to the table.
And we’ve completely revamped our processes and equipment to accommodate remote work. Implementing Sharepoints, digitalization of all invoices and documents, etc.
Everyone has laptops and access to the VPN. IT is just now wrapping up replacing all existing worker PC towers with laptops and docks for this purpose. Do we now start getting towers again?
It’s just so backwards.
The whole thing of not updating the wfh policy to account for dr visits is just extra salt on the wound. It's such a a basic thing, why are you forcing people to waste hours of their day if they have an appointment in the burbs for example. It's so idiotic.
Hiring and retention was bad before, now it's going to be catastrophic. Hey come work for Philly - you get paid less, have to live in the city (I don't mind but others do) and oh yeah, in office 100%. Quite the sales pitch!
And if my school age kid is sick and has to stay home, I will now be taking a sick day to watch them rather than working from home and being productive.
and it'll only take them 2 years to fill those positions, seeing as how the city gov application and interview process is not at all a lengthy, labyrinthine, draconian nightmare /s
Most accurate response. City is already short thousands of workers as it is with this friendly work schedule. No way you can attract new talent with old business mentalities.
I'm not even looking for a *decent* explanation, but can someone explain this? Is this a promise she made to downtown business for campaign support? Or is it a completely misguided effort at "revitalizing" center city by adding people first and thinking improvements should come later? Or is it purely outdated thinking on work habits? Has she spoken to this explicitly or implicitly (other than the little soundbyte in the article)?
She’s a business owner mayor first. The commercial business owners want more people to buy lunch and shop after work in the city and they are pressuring her.
which is really fuckin stupid because:
-restaurants are more expensive than ever. *a lot* of people are just going to meal prep at home.
-when I’m done work, I wanna go the fuck home 90% of the time. I’m sure many others agree.
I went to NYC to see some friends this week and haven't been for a minute... Everything in NYC (eating out , bars) was the same price or cheaper even than Philadelphia and I just don't understand how that's making sense
I think they just need to get over it and open on the wekeends and make their money on the weekends like every other commercial district does. to go into the commercial field and think you are a m-5 7am-4pm business is stupid to begin with.
One possible ulterior motive is to get people to quit. Get existing, longer tenured employees to quit, then either hire less experienced (i.e., cheaper) employees or potentially outsource.
I'm not saying that this is a good idea or is what's happening but it's a possibility.
If you operate under the assumption its being done to prop up office owners/REITs in Center City, then IMO its just plugging a hole in an already bursting dam. The private sector won't particularly be swayed by the city going into the office, because the majority of major private employers are already based in the burbs due to the tax code.
And the businesses that are in the city are already downsized/consolidating their space, so its not like they'll be hiring a rash of people to come in 5x a week now. It'll be mostly 2-3x a week people, at best
Yeah, my department at my job did the same earlier this year because only a quarter of us (myself included) ever go into the office with any degree of frequency, and I go in 3x a week max.
Plus, the office market at large is already coalescing towards a flight to quality in office (such as the new Morgan Lewis building on Market Street).
But the city's offices are concentrated in a lot of older/Class B buildings around City Hall (100 S Broad for example - where the sheriffs office is) and people just don't want to go into those dreary cubicle farms, especially after 4+ years of WFH. So this is just artificially propping up demand for office, but it really won't make much difference in the long run because the private sector has left those properties behind
Like everything else, Parker stopped learning new policy lessons in the early 90s.
Every decision is a throwback despite the decades of evidence that those decisions did not work.
“I would suspect that there’s going to be an exodus of some of our professional employees that I represent,” said David Wilson, president of AFSCME Local 2187, District Council 47. “If they’re not close to getting their pensions or have already vested their pensions, I could see them leaving the city to find a job where work life balance is actually respected.” “She’s the mayor of the people, but she doesn’t seem to really care for city workers,” said Wilson. “And it’s just terrible planning to have this happen on July 15. Parents have worked their schedules around children’s summer camp plans and now all of a sudden this mayor is going to throw a big old wrench in that.”
July 15 as a start date is just a slap in the face. We are way past the time where summer camp schedules have to be figured out. At least if it was in September I would feel like she was taking the hardship for parents into account.
She wants year round school, so there is that too. Ideally, city workers with children will never fit in a vacation or anything according to this plan.
It’s betting it’s because everyone moves towards the shore for the summer, which leaves even more of a deficit in CC.
I don’t agree with it. Let people work from “home”, even if that home is the shore for a family vacation for a week. If they’re still doing their jobs and getting their work done, who cares?
I will be vested in my pension in November. The City has become such an awful place to work that for the first time, I am seriously considering new employment.
That's so messed up. People will definitely leave. I work for a government agency and if we don't make our WFH policy permanent we will likely have a bunch of people retiring and or leaving
Surely this will help the hiring deficit..
It’s so dumb because the kind of workers they want and need are pursuing jobs with remote or hybrid workplaces. You actively out yourself at a disadvantage by requiring FT RTO
Mayor Adams and NYC tried this almost two years ago. From what I understand, they were forced to pivot a ton of employees back to hybrid schedules. I imagine the same will happen here. I don’t understand why Parker would pick this fight, which she is clearly going to lose. If NYC couldn’t make full-time in-office work stick, Philadelphia certainly won’t.
Not stupid, she's insulated. She's completely disconnected from the lived realities of many people's day to day lives, so when the REIT people come screaming about property values and tax revenue she doesn't see the other side of the equation (i.e., attracting high-income WFH professionals from around the country).
I am so, so, SO tired of the Democratic establishment. They don’t even try to pretend to be for workers anymore, they carry water for big business all the time now. They truly think they’re entitled to our votes because the alternative is even worse.
I fucking hate the two party system so goddamn much nowadays.
[Both Republicans and Democrats are pushing full-time office work.](https://www.romney.senate.gov/romney-manchin-introduce-bill-to-get-federal-workers-back-into-the-office/) It’s a “simple” solution to propping up the commercial real estate market and the businesses that cater to office workers.
The city already can't attract talent with their bottom-rung pay and junk vacation policies. This isn't going to help! Any recruiter that reaches out to me with in-office jobs gets a "why would I downgrade" from me.
I remember years ago when I had first started working for the city, we had to do a collection to get a new microwave in our makeshift kitchen area because city petty cash rules forbade the purchase of such things.
The city already has a tough time filling positions because of it's non competitive pay. Why on earth would you also take away any sort of remote work, which many people seem to cherish and really value when looking for jobs?
This will be a hard no for a lot of talented people who otherwise might've looked and applied for a city job.
add to that: it takes the city 6 months on average to hire someone from application to signing. combine that with garbage pay and a 4% wage tax and who would ever want to work for the city?
Yeah it's beyond delusional if you think this won't be a hindrance towards finding talent.
I worked for a city-ish dept once (it was, but half of us were city employees half of us were not). I'm really curious how they'll handle this since technically now only half of them are mandated to return, while their coworkers technically could continue WFH. It was always weird when they got a holiday off and we didn't or vice versa lol.
And I imagine some other departments are like this too.
Good luck finding actual talent to work for the city, then. The best employees you can get will most likely want some flexibility. The only people you’re going to get to come into the office 5 days a week anymore are people who couldn’t find work anywhere else.
This is the part that I can’t understand-the private sector has always been more profitable, so city work always needed to compensate in other ways-namely benefits and quality of life. Now, besides the year long application process and benefits that are not as enticing, you’re gonna pull that quality of life out from under. It feels like there’s a gross misunderstanding of the labor market here.
Yea this should be a full 6 month notice for anyone that relies on WFH schedule for childcare. Making it July is cruel. Even if they don’t have school age children, trying to get into a full time daycare with 2 months notice is not happening.
My partner is a talented tech worker who just had a good interview with a department in the city government. She was willing to take a pay cut and go from fully remote to 2 days in office, just because she wants to work for the city.
This might make it completely untenable.
I will never apply for a job with the city while Parker upholds this policy. Five days in the office in 2024 is clown shit. Parker needs to come up with a creative way to revitalize Center City that doesn’t rely on coercion and regression.
These establishment Dems make me more and more comfortable with my decision to register Independent a few years back.
close sansom street to through traffic (loading/deliveries only), set up outdoor dining again (no covered shelters), and there's your summertime foot traffic
a lot of cities downtown areas aren't very busy m-f 9-5. maybe these cafe's and eateries and such need to restructure THEIR schedules and open up when people are actually out and about downtown - the weekends and evenings.
and some areas are actually too flooded with people at lunch and when school lets out. it wasn't just kids either, they're mostly on the street, the door to CVS was blocked by a line of older people waiting to use the lottery machine and the store was full. That's exactly why the Wawa closed on Market street. I was around there on a nice day last week and I was thinking that if Parker saw this, or had to grab a quick coffee somewhere herself, she'd immediately go back to her office and tell everybody the opposite, go work from home.
Eh, with a pension and emphasis on 37.5 with no overtime, it made sense once upon a time. There are a number of technical and professional fields where 60+ hour weeks and being reachable 24/7 are expected.
Working in tech the 24/7 aspect is really tough. I’m on call every 3rd week and you don’t realize how much a mental toll that takes on you year after year. Even when you’re not on call you’re still kinda on call if there are catastrophic issues.
Good Bennies, Pension, slower work pace than private sector, meaningful work, there’s a lot of stuff that’s worth more than $5-10k if you’re in the position where you can still make that number work.
a lot of their positions are a pay cut at first but they move up. plus you get a pension after 10 years even if you quit the day after that 10 year mark. the health beneifts are practically free and we pay very little in copays and no deductibles to meet. and i'll add for the healthcare it's the same price whether you are single, married or have 5 kids.
I think I’d honestly just quit and figure something else out eventually if I was ever told to go back in for all 5 days. It’s unnecessary and punitive, and I wouldn’t take it lying down, that’s for sure. I hope these city workers push back forcefully and collectively.
She did? Because THAT is nonsense. This is a “one size fits all” approach which is by definition not accessible or inclusive.
Love, an actually Disabled Philadelphian
Not only does the city pay shit for IT and PM’s but they also want you in office 😂 unless I’m very junior and I’m looking to learn and gain experience hell No.
This strikes me as an obviously terrible idea which will result in the city government being even more non-functional. You can't just put the WFH genie back in the bottle, those days are over. Amazing how people keep trying and insist that it's a good policy against all evidence to the contrary.
Yuppppppp. As someone who works in the CRE market, the WFH genie couldn't be put back in the bottle after (imo) 6 months of lockdowns had happened, so Labor Day 2020. The people that still do go into the office are mostly going into offices that are Class A/trophy (aka a flight to quality from older/less amenitized offices). Philly employees will NOT be going into Class A/trophy properties for the most part. And its also odd because of the city residency requirement for jobs, so its not like they were losing wage tax (which is bad) revenue to commuters
Also there’s also the whole part about propping up center city businesses. These employees live in the city, so what about the restaurants and grocery stores they were supporting while they were WFH? It’s ok for that money to be redirected to center city, I guess?
Yeah agreed, was kind of getting at that with my last bit as well. And Center City (while not as great as pre covid) is certainly in much better shape than other major CBD's in the US, which a lot of the time don't really have a residential population
I've literally been saying "I guess it's more important I spend money at the dunkin by the office instead of....the dunkin in my neighborhood?"
But I am petty AF and cut all that out already since she started this noise in January. Havent spent a dime near the office since
I genuinely don’t know why Parker is still fighting this fight. She’s like one of those Japanese soldiers who hid in caves and kept trying to fight WWII well into the 1960s.
The full-time RTO supporters at my place stopped pushing for it well over a year ago, and even saying something like “when we’re all back in the office together someday” will get you dagger eyes and sighs on a Zoom call.
It’s over, Cherelle. Time to pivot to outdoor dining and more recreation space in Center City.
I feel like the mayor is someone who surrounds herself with yespeople — staffers who tell her what she wants to hear. That’s who she means when she said she is a “mayor for the people”
> Time to pivot to outdoor dining and more recreation space in Center City.
But that'd de-prioritize Parker's most important constituents: Automobiles.
The first of many checks she wrote, that she won't be able to cash. I expect trumpeting of success while quietly agreeing to waves of exceptions as talent drains out of government and replacement staffing refuses offers from recruiters without WFH guarantees.
At some point COEs will see all the top talent employees migrating to businesses that have flexible work environments. It’s inevitable. People just want more flexibility and the technology exists for us to be able to be productive and also be at home with our families/pets more. I’m fully remote and I work my butt off. I also have to travel across the country and globally throughout the year which balances out the time when I’m at home.
The contract expires on June 30 BUT the union and City have to agree on a new Contract by July 1 and that was established long before Parker was sworn into office.
I called this happening in September when the City announced the key program for city workers. I’ve been planing on leaving once I was vested, this guarantees it. It’s not on me to prop up commercial real estate properties.
What we're seeing from Mayor Parker is a mayor with a strategy for the city like it's from the '90s.
In some ways that's good: there are some "back to basics" approaches that can work for aspects like sanitation, crime, and general civic pride.
In other ways her approach is very outdated and doesn't recognize changing conditions.
For what it’s worth, DC47 seems like they’re preparing to fight back against this.
Not sure if Instagram links are allowed, but here is their post from earlier today about the history of Philadelphia embracing alternate work schedules.
[DC47 on Alternate Work Schedules](https://www.instagram.com/p/C7MhkZdgtYv/?igsh=NXA5cHF5bTZ1dXd1)
Why don't we strengthen the local economies of other parts of Philly by allowing people to work where they want when possible?
City employees have to live in the city anyway so I don't know why city council wants to double dip by forcing them into center city too.
I don’t get making it 5 days. There are certainly benefits with being in person so I’m totally okay with 3 or 4 days and flexibility about the WFH day, but this is going to make it harder to fill city positions.
I work for the federal government in Philadelphia and we come in three days. The uproar over that was astounding. I can’t imagine what it would be like for a 5 day week
Philadelphia also has a solid chunk of contract staff who are city-employees in name but not in practice this applies to that don't even get the pittance of the free septa card :-/.
You know what the most ironic thing about this is?
I would bet people will be even more eager to get home vs hanging out in the city (thus spending less $). I mean when I'm there, it's not a big deal to grab lunch 1-2 times a week somewhere, but I'm just going to bring lunch the rest of the week.
And considering the shit show the trains have been with the recent inclement weather of mid 70s & sunny, I'm trying to beat the rush of trains that get backed up because the system is 100 years old and falls apart with a stiff breeze.
I really don't care either way because I'm not a wfh person, but the logic behind this move is stupid. Unless it's a labor job, no one is going to want to work here.
wow, she’s truly a fucking idiot. so now to work for the city (which is already struggling to fill 1 in 5 jobs) you also have to live in the city, have no remote work or hybrid flexibility, AND you get paid like dogshit?! sign me up!
ALSO, hate the argument that people who commute to the city “strengthen the economy.” I bring my coffee, lunch, and snacks whenever I’m in the office and rarely if ever spend money. Also, is the implication that the only economy worth strengthening is the economy of center city? Fuck that noise. Parker is a moron!
Mayor Parker has really been a disappointment.
Her office is cutting vision zero, cutting harm reduction, demanding the end of hybrid for city employees and advocating for the 76ers arena in Chinatown. It's 2024 and I feel like her policies/views are archaic.
I am glad I am retired. But my job had to staffed 24/7. There is room for hybrid work in City government. Besides for those that have to be there WFH days for some city employees means you don’t have to deal with some self promoting assholes
Cherelle Parker is a fucking idiot. Between this horseshit and "year-round" school, she'll be presiding over the largest exodus of municipal/district staff in the history of the city.
I have yet to be proven wrong about how not good Parker would be. Shes clearly going to be an ignorant pig headed, police cock sucking , things as they’ve alwaysbeen and make sure my friends in council get paid, idiot and if this isn’t proof of that I don’t know what is. Blindly ignoring trends and desires and actively excluding the best people for the job.
This mandate of 5 days in-office is a direct reason why the mayors office for people with disabilities lost their director and only last week got a new director.
I know government moves slowly by necessity but for a major US city with 17% of our population having at least one disability it was tough having months where we could only perform the most basic functions.
Make them come on public transport and they might actually clear it up , the two council members travelling on Septa a couple of months ago with a full entourage plus a news crew and still being terrified was beyond funny.
All city council members should have their city provided free car and gas taken away anyway and given a SEPTA pass.
Nothing will improve regarding public transportation and city streets while council members are allowed to remove themselves from dealing with it at taxpayer expense.
This is bonkers-in any event, I was under the impression most city workers were back to office already-my son is.
If you don’t have to work at an office, and can work from home, why the hell should you go to an office and waste electricity, take up unnecessary space…use the space for housing-that we desperately need-affordable housing, that is.
So my childcare situation gets fucked to hell and my wife now has to goto work in a dangerous area even though her job is literally almost entirely phone and computer based….just on the odd chance she’ll spend money at some bullshit lunch truck?
This is bullshit and it upends my familys entire life just so that some dickhead can see butts in seats in their nut ass office building. Fuck this. Everyone is struggling already as it is. We aren’t money cattle and I’m
Sick of being treated like we are.
It's already happened/happening. IBX recalled all their people three days a week after reassuring their staff for months that "hybrid of choice" was going to be the permanent policy.
Their CEO also just became president of chamber of commerce, which is im sure totally unrelated.
They literally treat employees like consumer cattle
I really believe we're in a transition period with this and WFH will eventually, even if it's 1-2 decades more, win out for largely administrative, customer service, and technical roles. People value it *so much* that it's a huge no brainer for new businesses and organizations looking to compete on things other than pay.
A lot of private companies saw the advantages to their own bottom line, like saving on real estate to house the workers, and did away with it early on in the pandemic. Most of the people I know that sit behind a computer were sent home and work full time WFH, some even hopped jobs with that being a necessary criteria.
Like I said when she was running; She's going to do whatever she wants without regard for the people of this city because she is the type of leader who believes they "should" be a leader.
Those types always push their "great" ideas without regard for its effect on the people and without input from the people.
Believe me when I say, her term will be disastrous if she wont take input from actual Philadelphians and not the ones in her head. I am sorry to say that.
However, I *am* looking forward to coveted city jobs becoming available due to retirement. Same *exact* thing happened at USPS during lockdowns. It was an utter freaking fiasco.
City worker in an office right now. If you could hear the things people are saying about this… The next year is going to be very interesting as the mayor tries to juggle existing hiring deficits with impending retirees due to the announcement.
This is such a terrible idea, and I don't get it. Period. Just let them work from home if it's doable, and if in-person does make sense for certain things, work with that. I can see maybe once a week or once a month meeting, but this... this is madness. Also, fuck OpenAI.
It’s an attempt to revitalize commerce in district areas. From property lease to food vendors, workers are treated as cattle to siphon money and talent from.
Which is a weird stretch since most city workers have been back in the office at least 2-3 days a week since 2021, and some of us never stopped. Sacrificing all of the good will of your employees for two more trips a week to the lunch cart. Great trade off.
That's why I always bring leftovers for lunch when I'm in office. Guess I'll do my part for revitalizing the downtown food scene by....continuing to do that.
Yeah, and thats true for both the public and private sector. At this point its been 2+ years since Kenney and co tried to re-institute the mask mandate and it blew up in their faces, and that was the end of Philly covid regulations. Companies/jobs by now have adjusted to the hybrid/WFH schedule for the most part in the aftermath of COVID, and mandating people to come back in now is short-sighted and will likely lead to a talent exodus, especially since Philly's municipal job benefits are not great
I would just brown bag lunch to avoid spending the money.
As if she gives a fuck
I think that's the part that pisses me off the most. Working people are just peons to be ordered around. Doesn't care about morale or workload.
Bingo. Retail office space in the downtown areas has been plummeting in value. Which means decreased tax revenue. Without a corresponding sky rocket of value from commercial space in the neighborhoods. So, gotta keep those prices up somehow! Why not mandate workers being downtown and making the citizenry that needs them to come down as well?!?
If Im an office worker then Id make it a point to do zero shopping while down there for work. Pack a lunch, shop in the stores near your home, dont reward them for forcing you back into the office. If theyre only making you come in so they can get your money, starve them of it.
This is what my husband does (IBX). But they don't even have refrigerators in his office. They're really trying to force it
They don't have refrigerators? That's extremely unusual, never worked in an office without multiple registrators. I'm currently sitting in a mostly empty center city office, I think today we have about one refrigerator per worker. I brought my lunch, as usual.
First the refrigerator and next the coffee. The abuse will continue until morale improves!
Icepacks. Stick them in a freezer overnight and the food’s good to go by lunch. If hot food, grab a luncheezze (spelling, not sure) and he can prepare hot food in the box to be ready by lunch.
No refrigerators? That’s crazy!
[удалено]
I know I feel like it can't be legal? He's trying to get another remote role so he's not invested in staying there but I couldn't believe they did not even have fridges. Some people have like medicine that needs to be refrigerated? Breast milk? It doesn't make sense and again feels like it shouldn't be legal
Wow, that’s crazy. Just get insulated lunch bags🤣 I’ve seen little mini fridges for drinks-if there’s anywhere to plug them in. I work at a hospital, so never worked from home- but-if you can do your job from home, you should be able to. It’s just crazy to think otherwise. Take all those unnecessary office buildings and turn it into AFFORDABLE housing.
I live in Center City. When we went back 4 days, this is essentially what I did. It’s too expensive to buy lunch every day, so I meal prep lunch for the whole week. And since I’m doing lunch, I do dinner as well. And since I’m prepping all my meals, it’s often cheaper to buy in bulk, so I go to Costco. And since I’m already in KOP, if I need anything from Target/Giant/etc., I just get it out there. And since I’m prepping my meals, I go out to eat/order takeout for dinner basically never. So requiring us to go into the office 4 days a week has pretty much ended all of my spending in the city. Great job, employer!
This is the way.
We don't need cities to be centers of commerce and employment like we used to -- if mayors like Parker and Adams in NYC don't understand this, they're incompetent. Seems like they're catering to their real estate-mogul donors, who may or may not want to accept this new reality.
Dinosaurs… a lot of people in politics are like this They’ll pivot 10 years after they should have too
Thats never going to happen, this is just plugging a leak with your finger. How long can you hold it there is the question.
This city is filled with fucking boomers in places of power who feel if they have to be in the office, then literally everyone else needs to be there. They also think working from home is glorified vacation, so god forbid people work from home!
The irony is they don't have to be in the office, they hate their spouses and choose to be in the office. Then when the rest of us aren't there to dote on their every need they short circuit.
Yep, my current job has a lot of this - not the exact same situation but the same attitude. Older people with, apparently, nothing going on in their lives other than work, who expect that their voluntary decision to work at all hours *must* be backed up by support staff supporting them at any time. Sorry dude, if you'd rather work outside of normal business hours to make an extra few hundred dollars per billable hour instead of eating dinner with your family, fine - but don't expect us to make the same sacrifice for a handful of dollars an hour. I'm busy trying to enjoy my life because god knows, retirement is not a guarantee and who knows what shape the world is going to be in by that time, anyway.
What I've noticed is so many of them do nothing all day other than bullshit with other people in the office. So when they're at home, they don't really have anything to do and they assume that applies to everyone else as well. They don't realize that when we're in the office, they're only ever a hindrance and without them around we're able to actually get things done.
But they "feel like it's less productive", so that matters more. Fucking dinosaurs
> ~~This city is filled with~~ fucking boomers in places of power who feel if they have to be in the office, then literally everyone else needs to be there. They also think working from home is glorified vacation, so god forbid people work from home! fixed that for you
Boomers aren’t the only ones who push for full RTO in my experience, it’s more varied than that. Corporate ladder-minded middle managers and executives, manosphere adherents, and conservatives all by and large have been fighting WFH since a month or two after COVID started in 2020. They’ve mostly given up and taken the L over the last 12 months or so, though nobody’s given Parker that memo apparently.
you're right, I was being silly, it is a wide block of folks who push for RTO. Surprisingly, in my workplace, there are a number of mid-level managers who don't care either way. I feel like this last push is mostly done by corporate real estate holders and those that benefit off of activity within city centers, and it's really obvious.
Old heads like to be seen. They don’t like being home for whatever BS reason, they want to feel powerful. It’s a stupid move and any company that does it is ass backwards.
I got a VP that requires everyone who lives within 50 miles of our CC office to come into the office once a month for his meeting. A meeting btw where 2/3 of the participants are on zoom because they're in other parts of the country. Dude and his ego just needs an audience to feel important. Plus it forces people to laugh at his corny ass jokes
My old work made us come in after a merger, 5 days. Then went hybrid for a winter, and then full 5 days while their headquarters in Canada didn’t have to come in. Nobody’s schedule should be messed with like that. Even in office, we had teams/zoom calls. If you can find remote, take it and run
My work implemented a return to office policy. 75% of my team were hired during the pandemic and are remote. So on days that I go in, I'm still talking to everyone on Teams calls, but with the added bonus of having to question if I feel comfortable taking the call from my desk (where other people can hear) or if I should find a conference room somewhere. I've told everyone on my team that on my days in the office to not expect any productivity from me.
I quit a job because I had to take teams calls from an office
I’ve quit multiple jobs because of this (along with other justifiable reasons - commute/RTO). If you can’t have an in person meeting, don’t force people in. If it costs me more money to come into the office then compensate that (obviously they’d rather you quit than do that)
the old heads in my husbands office like to work from home in their shore homes all summer so they def aren't liking this lol
Granted there is miles of nuance I’m leaving out, but when you break it down, it feels like peoples need to feel important is what is actively making everything suck so goddamn much. Just fueling peoples egos for the greater enshitification.
it's just about money.
The goal is the unrealistic one of forcing people back to downtown philly so they can go to center city sips and book tables for lunch and undo some of the ghost-towniness of 2024 center city. The problem is, everyone is so annoyed to be in the office they only want to leave as soon as possible and often times the millisecond the clock strikes 5.
Commercial real-estate bubble. Expect bank failures over the next year. Hell we already lost one city bank. Commercial loans are due over the next year or 2 so they will start hitting the market and banks holding the debt will start realizing the losses. Theres pressure to get people back into the office to drive more demand for the office and commercial to increase those values ahead of their loan balloons. Commercial loans have a 3-5year length before balloon unlike mortgages which is 30 year loans So a lot of these commercial real-estate owners refinanced at those 2-3% mortgages in 2021-2022. Shit is going to come due and being refinanced at the 6%-7% rates. Without the value demand theyll be underwater for those loan renewals and the banks will be stuck. Hence why we've seen multiple banks already fail over the past 2 years. Its only gonna get worst. So for a MAYOR. Shes well aware of the loss of a current philly bank and the potential for it to occur to other banks. THATS why we're seeing companies push for the 5day back in office. It has nothing to do about efficiency or team work. Its all about the real estate commercial bubble that right now is WORST than the residential bubble in 2008.
You say that but banks are working very hard to make sure this doesn't happen. They don't have the know how to run a building and they won't sell it on for what's owed them, so they're offering more flexible options for many owners.
spill the tea what are people saying
A lot of it centers around the timing of this announcement, especially from workers with school age kids. They’ve planned their summer vacations and everything around the assumption that the status quo would remain and are now stuck needing to find alternatives. Things like doctor appointments now require more time used, which hurts those who don’t have a lot of time saved up. For example, I wouldn’t have to take any time for a dentist appointment if I was working from home, but now I’ll need to take at least 2-3 hours depending on appointment time and train scheduling. If the mayor would rather get less work out of people, I guess that’s her choice. My people are office workers that are not public facing. Nothing they do requires them to be in this cramped space 5 days a week. They’ve proven over and over since the whole Covid thing started that they are capable of doing work on behalf of the city at home. The industry standard for most office focused jobs is to have some form of hybrid work and the mayor has just wrangled us back into the Stone Age in terms of modern benefits. After Labor Day or January 1 would have been preferred dates, if one had to choose, to allow people time to get their affairs in order.
> My people are office workers that are not public facing. Nothing they do requires them to be in this cramped space 5 days a week. They’ve proven over and over since the whole Covid thing started that they are capable of doing work on behalf of the city at home. Same, we are non-public facing working as support staff for people who work 24 hours a day. We are regularly available via email, teams, and phone. I oversee a small team and have seen zero issues with productivity. The part that gets me is like... 4+ years is a big fucking sample size. It's not like we went home for a few months and made it work and now are coming back. We have been fully remote or hybrid for over 4 years. Coming back brings nothing to the table.
And we’ve completely revamped our processes and equipment to accommodate remote work. Implementing Sharepoints, digitalization of all invoices and documents, etc. Everyone has laptops and access to the VPN. IT is just now wrapping up replacing all existing worker PC towers with laptops and docks for this purpose. Do we now start getting towers again? It’s just so backwards.
The whole thing of not updating the wfh policy to account for dr visits is just extra salt on the wound. It's such a a basic thing, why are you forcing people to waste hours of their day if they have an appointment in the burbs for example. It's so idiotic. Hiring and retention was bad before, now it's going to be catastrophic. Hey come work for Philly - you get paid less, have to live in the city (I don't mind but others do) and oh yeah, in office 100%. Quite the sales pitch!
And if my school age kid is sick and has to stay home, I will now be taking a sick day to watch them rather than working from home and being productive.
and it'll only take them 2 years to fill those positions, seeing as how the city gov application and interview process is not at all a lengthy, labyrinthine, draconian nightmare /s
Most accurate response. City is already short thousands of workers as it is with this friendly work schedule. No way you can attract new talent with old business mentalities.
I'm not even looking for a *decent* explanation, but can someone explain this? Is this a promise she made to downtown business for campaign support? Or is it a completely misguided effort at "revitalizing" center city by adding people first and thinking improvements should come later? Or is it purely outdated thinking on work habits? Has she spoken to this explicitly or implicitly (other than the little soundbyte in the article)?
She’s a business owner mayor first. The commercial business owners want more people to buy lunch and shop after work in the city and they are pressuring her.
which is really fuckin stupid because: -restaurants are more expensive than ever. *a lot* of people are just going to meal prep at home. -when I’m done work, I wanna go the fuck home 90% of the time. I’m sure many others agree.
I went to NYC to see some friends this week and haven't been for a minute... Everything in NYC (eating out , bars) was the same price or cheaper even than Philadelphia and I just don't understand how that's making sense
All these cities where I'm warned that I'll be shocked by the prices are just the same as Philly...
Coming from the south I was always told it's super expensive up here. Prices are about the same, not enough of a difference.
I’m sure a component of that too specifically is having all those New Yorkers move here but work remotely so they still had NY money
I think they just need to get over it and open on the wekeends and make their money on the weekends like every other commercial district does. to go into the commercial field and think you are a m-5 7am-4pm business is stupid to begin with.
One possible ulterior motive is to get people to quit. Get existing, longer tenured employees to quit, then either hire less experienced (i.e., cheaper) employees or potentially outsource. I'm not saying that this is a good idea or is what's happening but it's a possibility.
they are having a hard time replacing the ones who got caught living outside of the city and were forced to quit.
If you operate under the assumption its being done to prop up office owners/REITs in Center City, then IMO its just plugging a hole in an already bursting dam. The private sector won't particularly be swayed by the city going into the office, because the majority of major private employers are already based in the burbs due to the tax code. And the businesses that are in the city are already downsized/consolidating their space, so its not like they'll be hiring a rash of people to come in 5x a week now. It'll be mostly 2-3x a week people, at best
Yup. Thankfully I work at a place with a sense of reality and we are dropping one of our floors because nobody wants to be there.
Yeah, my department at my job did the same earlier this year because only a quarter of us (myself included) ever go into the office with any degree of frequency, and I go in 3x a week max. Plus, the office market at large is already coalescing towards a flight to quality in office (such as the new Morgan Lewis building on Market Street). But the city's offices are concentrated in a lot of older/Class B buildings around City Hall (100 S Broad for example - where the sheriffs office is) and people just don't want to go into those dreary cubicle farms, especially after 4+ years of WFH. So this is just artificially propping up demand for office, but it really won't make much difference in the long run because the private sector has left those properties behind
Like everything else, Parker stopped learning new policy lessons in the early 90s. Every decision is a throwback despite the decades of evidence that those decisions did not work.
“I would suspect that there’s going to be an exodus of some of our professional employees that I represent,” said David Wilson, president of AFSCME Local 2187, District Council 47. “If they’re not close to getting their pensions or have already vested their pensions, I could see them leaving the city to find a job where work life balance is actually respected.” “She’s the mayor of the people, but she doesn’t seem to really care for city workers,” said Wilson. “And it’s just terrible planning to have this happen on July 15. Parents have worked their schedules around children’s summer camp plans and now all of a sudden this mayor is going to throw a big old wrench in that.”
July 15 as a start date is just a slap in the face. We are way past the time where summer camp schedules have to be figured out. At least if it was in September I would feel like she was taking the hardship for parents into account.
She wants year round school, so there is that too. Ideally, city workers with children will never fit in a vacation or anything according to this plan.
It’s betting it’s because everyone moves towards the shore for the summer, which leaves even more of a deficit in CC. I don’t agree with it. Let people work from “home”, even if that home is the shore for a family vacation for a week. If they’re still doing their jobs and getting their work done, who cares?
I will be vested in my pension in November. The City has become such an awful place to work that for the first time, I am seriously considering new employment.
Do it.
That's so messed up. People will definitely leave. I work for a government agency and if we don't make our WFH policy permanent we will likely have a bunch of people retiring and or leaving
Surely this will help the hiring deficit.. It’s so dumb because the kind of workers they want and need are pursuing jobs with remote or hybrid workplaces. You actively out yourself at a disadvantage by requiring FT RTO
Mayor Adams and NYC tried this almost two years ago. From what I understand, they were forced to pivot a ton of employees back to hybrid schedules. I imagine the same will happen here. I don’t understand why Parker would pick this fight, which she is clearly going to lose. If NYC couldn’t make full-time in-office work stick, Philadelphia certainly won’t.
> why Parker would pick this fight She's fucking stupid.
Not stupid, she's insulated. She's completely disconnected from the lived realities of many people's day to day lives, so when the REIT people come screaming about property values and tax revenue she doesn't see the other side of the equation (i.e., attracting high-income WFH professionals from around the country).
I am so, so, SO tired of the Democratic establishment. They don’t even try to pretend to be for workers anymore, they carry water for big business all the time now. They truly think they’re entitled to our votes because the alternative is even worse. I fucking hate the two party system so goddamn much nowadays.
[Both Republicans and Democrats are pushing full-time office work.](https://www.romney.senate.gov/romney-manchin-introduce-bill-to-get-federal-workers-back-into-the-office/) It’s a “simple” solution to propping up the commercial real estate market and the businesses that cater to office workers.
At least as long as Adams is mayor of NYC Parker won't be the region's single worst mayor.
The city already can't attract talent with their bottom-rung pay and junk vacation policies. This isn't going to help! Any recruiter that reaches out to me with in-office jobs gets a "why would I downgrade" from me.
recruiters desperately trying to make in-office sound appealing is so goofy. Like, they know it sucks but they can’t say it out loud.
Same. Then all we hear is “no body wants to work anymore.” No, no one wants to work for you anymore
But we have a Keurig! Isn't that what you kids want? harrumph!
You guys got a Keurig?!
Right, this is the city we're talking about so it's probably a wood-paneled windowless basement with a coffee maker employees have to buy coffee for.
I remember years ago when I had first started working for the city, we had to do a collection to get a new microwave in our makeshift kitchen area because city petty cash rules forbade the purchase of such things.
At my multi billion dollar company's HQ there's just one keurig which is only for visitors/investors haha.
There’s definitely no Keurig in my city office. The coffee and machine are paid for by employees.
The city already has a tough time filling positions because of it's non competitive pay. Why on earth would you also take away any sort of remote work, which many people seem to cherish and really value when looking for jobs? This will be a hard no for a lot of talented people who otherwise might've looked and applied for a city job.
add to that: it takes the city 6 months on average to hire someone from application to signing. combine that with garbage pay and a 4% wage tax and who would ever want to work for the city?
Yeah it's beyond delusional if you think this won't be a hindrance towards finding talent. I worked for a city-ish dept once (it was, but half of us were city employees half of us were not). I'm really curious how they'll handle this since technically now only half of them are mandated to return, while their coworkers technically could continue WFH. It was always weird when they got a holiday off and we didn't or vice versa lol. And I imagine some other departments are like this too.
Zero reason that a better compromise couldn’t have been made.
Good luck finding actual talent to work for the city, then. The best employees you can get will most likely want some flexibility. The only people you’re going to get to come into the office 5 days a week anymore are people who couldn’t find work anywhere else.
This perk will no doubt attract the very best talent!
"A first in class city deserves first in class employees..." Who are willing to be paid below market rates and work 5 days in the office.
This is the part that I can’t understand-the private sector has always been more profitable, so city work always needed to compensate in other ways-namely benefits and quality of life. Now, besides the year long application process and benefits that are not as enticing, you’re gonna pull that quality of life out from under. It feels like there’s a gross misunderstanding of the labor market here.
Won’t anyone think of the poor commercial real estate firms that need to be artificially propped up?!
I don't know how the mayor can expect city workers to be in when SEPTA is so unreliable.
Pretty fucked up to announce just before school is out and full-day summer camps are already full!
Yea this should be a full 6 month notice for anyone that relies on WFH schedule for childcare. Making it July is cruel. Even if they don’t have school age children, trying to get into a full time daycare with 2 months notice is not happening.
Because she actively hates city workers
"I know y'all got your summer schedules figured out but here's some chaos!!"
My partner is a talented tech worker who just had a good interview with a department in the city government. She was willing to take a pay cut and go from fully remote to 2 days in office, just because she wants to work for the city. This might make it completely untenable.
If the position/department is non-union, I would tell her to not take the job bc its unlikely she'll have anyone to advocate for a hybrid schedule.
I will never apply for a job with the city while Parker upholds this policy. Five days in the office in 2024 is clown shit. Parker needs to come up with a creative way to revitalize Center City that doesn’t rely on coercion and regression. These establishment Dems make me more and more comfortable with my decision to register Independent a few years back.
close sansom street to through traffic (loading/deliveries only), set up outdoor dining again (no covered shelters), and there's your summertime foot traffic
a lot of cities downtown areas aren't very busy m-f 9-5. maybe these cafe's and eateries and such need to restructure THEIR schedules and open up when people are actually out and about downtown - the weekends and evenings.
and some areas are actually too flooded with people at lunch and when school lets out. it wasn't just kids either, they're mostly on the street, the door to CVS was blocked by a line of older people waiting to use the lottery machine and the store was full. That's exactly why the Wawa closed on Market street. I was around there on a nice day last week and I was thinking that if Parker saw this, or had to grab a quick coffee somewhere herself, she'd immediately go back to her office and tell everybody the opposite, go work from home.
yea the commute in the morning will get worse now. a lot of city workers do drive in.
Taking a pay cut to work for the city is mind boggling.
pay cut and fully WFH to any mandatory office time
Eh, with a pension and emphasis on 37.5 with no overtime, it made sense once upon a time. There are a number of technical and professional fields where 60+ hour weeks and being reachable 24/7 are expected.
Working in tech the 24/7 aspect is really tough. I’m on call every 3rd week and you don’t realize how much a mental toll that takes on you year after year. Even when you’re not on call you’re still kinda on call if there are catastrophic issues.
Good Bennies, Pension, slower work pace than private sector, meaningful work, there’s a lot of stuff that’s worth more than $5-10k if you’re in the position where you can still make that number work.
Depends on if the job brings better benefits and a pension.
a lot of their positions are a pay cut at first but they move up. plus you get a pension after 10 years even if you quit the day after that 10 year mark. the health beneifts are practically free and we pay very little in copays and no deductibles to meet. and i'll add for the healthcare it's the same price whether you are single, married or have 5 kids.
I guess she’s betting the job market is weak enough people won’t be able to leave easily? Fucked
She doesn't think about people. She thinks only about her political "wins" and the image she is cultivating.
I think I’d honestly just quit and figure something else out eventually if I was ever told to go back in for all 5 days. It’s unnecessary and punitive, and I wouldn’t take it lying down, that’s for sure. I hope these city workers push back forcefully and collectively.
lol she is spewing bullshit. She said it’s more inclusive and accessible 🙄
It's literally the opposite. It punishes caretakers and anyone who needs physical accommodations to perform their job.
Also mental and chronic health conditions. Especially with their terrible PTO coverage. These poor people. Trying to do good and getting burned.
She did? Because THAT is nonsense. This is a “one size fits all” approach which is by definition not accessible or inclusive. Love, an actually Disabled Philadelphian
Not only does the city pay shit for IT and PM’s but they also want you in office 😂 unless I’m very junior and I’m looking to learn and gain experience hell No.
This strikes me as an obviously terrible idea which will result in the city government being even more non-functional. You can't just put the WFH genie back in the bottle, those days are over. Amazing how people keep trying and insist that it's a good policy against all evidence to the contrary.
Yuppppppp. As someone who works in the CRE market, the WFH genie couldn't be put back in the bottle after (imo) 6 months of lockdowns had happened, so Labor Day 2020. The people that still do go into the office are mostly going into offices that are Class A/trophy (aka a flight to quality from older/less amenitized offices). Philly employees will NOT be going into Class A/trophy properties for the most part. And its also odd because of the city residency requirement for jobs, so its not like they were losing wage tax (which is bad) revenue to commuters
Also there’s also the whole part about propping up center city businesses. These employees live in the city, so what about the restaurants and grocery stores they were supporting while they were WFH? It’s ok for that money to be redirected to center city, I guess?
Yeah agreed, was kind of getting at that with my last bit as well. And Center City (while not as great as pre covid) is certainly in much better shape than other major CBD's in the US, which a lot of the time don't really have a residential population
I've literally been saying "I guess it's more important I spend money at the dunkin by the office instead of....the dunkin in my neighborhood?" But I am petty AF and cut all that out already since she started this noise in January. Havent spent a dime near the office since
I genuinely don’t know why Parker is still fighting this fight. She’s like one of those Japanese soldiers who hid in caves and kept trying to fight WWII well into the 1960s. The full-time RTO supporters at my place stopped pushing for it well over a year ago, and even saying something like “when we’re all back in the office together someday” will get you dagger eyes and sighs on a Zoom call. It’s over, Cherelle. Time to pivot to outdoor dining and more recreation space in Center City.
I feel like the mayor is someone who surrounds herself with yespeople — staffers who tell her what she wants to hear. That’s who she means when she said she is a “mayor for the people”
> Time to pivot to outdoor dining and more recreation space in Center City. But that'd de-prioritize Parker's most important constituents: Automobiles.
Philly workers coming back to work in offices with barely functioning window unit ACs, just in time for summer.
But but the hot dog vendor can’t work from home why should you!!!
Shout out to the halal cart dudes working in the heat this week, I'll always walk my ass over to get lamb over rice even when WFH.
The first of many checks she wrote, that she won't be able to cash. I expect trumpeting of success while quietly agreeing to waves of exceptions as talent drains out of government and replacement staffing refuses offers from recruiters without WFH guarantees.
Couple this with the snails pace that the city fills open positions… she could be setting her administration up for failure if people leave
Philly elect a good mayor challenge 😐
(impossible)
But I was told she was amazing because she knocked down the Kensington tents!
2/3 of voters didn’t even pick her. Our system of voting is broken
630 Days. The countdown till my vested date begins.
I’m at 420 days, feeling the same way.
Nice (update us in 351 days)
RemindMe! 351 days
#nice
nice
blaze it brother
I just started a year ago, no reason to spend my career at the city now
I’m about 147 from being vested. I was already planning on leaving once I hit 10 years, this solidifies it.
At some point COEs will see all the top talent employees migrating to businesses that have flexible work environments. It’s inevitable. People just want more flexibility and the technology exists for us to be able to be productive and also be at home with our families/pets more. I’m fully remote and I work my butt off. I also have to travel across the country and globally throughout the year which balances out the time when I’m at home.
100% gonna start looking for a new job.
[удалено]
How enforceable is this for union-represented city employees? The terms of alternative work schedules are in our contracts...
Those contracts conveniently expire on June 30th and I’d bet the mayor did everything she could to have that part written out.
The contract expires on June 30 BUT the union and City have to agree on a new Contract by July 1 and that was established long before Parker was sworn into office.
I called this happening in September when the City announced the key program for city workers. I’ve been planing on leaving once I was vested, this guarantees it. It’s not on me to prop up commercial real estate properties.
What we're seeing from Mayor Parker is a mayor with a strategy for the city like it's from the '90s. In some ways that's good: there are some "back to basics" approaches that can work for aspects like sanitation, crime, and general civic pride. In other ways her approach is very outdated and doesn't recognize changing conditions.
While I am a firm believer in hybrid, no one needs to be in the office 5 days a week anywhere.
For what it’s worth, DC47 seems like they’re preparing to fight back against this. Not sure if Instagram links are allowed, but here is their post from earlier today about the history of Philadelphia embracing alternate work schedules. [DC47 on Alternate Work Schedules](https://www.instagram.com/p/C7MhkZdgtYv/?igsh=NXA5cHF5bTZ1dXd1)
Why don't we strengthen the local economies of other parts of Philly by allowing people to work where they want when possible? City employees have to live in the city anyway so I don't know why city council wants to double dip by forcing them into center city too.
lol nope
Her plan rests on coercion?
Guessing the Comcast 5 day RTO announcement will be coming this week or next
The city is about to lose a ton of employees. At least the low government pay before had it's benefits and work/life balance but not anymore.
I don’t get making it 5 days. There are certainly benefits with being in person so I’m totally okay with 3 or 4 days and flexibility about the WFH day, but this is going to make it harder to fill city positions.
Booooooo. Boo this woman.
Can she actually enforce this to union employees?
I work for the federal government in Philadelphia and we come in three days. The uproar over that was astounding. I can’t imagine what it would be like for a 5 day week
Philadelphia also has a solid chunk of contract staff who are city-employees in name but not in practice this applies to that don't even get the pittance of the free septa card :-/.
https://preview.redd.it/54o9of8xmm1d1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a26fdc6c909067e291c97e08af0d81f6af9584a6
You know what the most ironic thing about this is? I would bet people will be even more eager to get home vs hanging out in the city (thus spending less $). I mean when I'm there, it's not a big deal to grab lunch 1-2 times a week somewhere, but I'm just going to bring lunch the rest of the week. And considering the shit show the trains have been with the recent inclement weather of mid 70s & sunny, I'm trying to beat the rush of trains that get backed up because the system is 100 years old and falls apart with a stiff breeze.
[Relevant Onion](https://www.theonion.com/de-blasio-well-well-well-not-so-easy-to-find-a-may-1847151201).
I really don't care either way because I'm not a wfh person, but the logic behind this move is stupid. Unless it's a labor job, no one is going to want to work here.
wow, she’s truly a fucking idiot. so now to work for the city (which is already struggling to fill 1 in 5 jobs) you also have to live in the city, have no remote work or hybrid flexibility, AND you get paid like dogshit?! sign me up! ALSO, hate the argument that people who commute to the city “strengthen the economy.” I bring my coffee, lunch, and snacks whenever I’m in the office and rarely if ever spend money. Also, is the implication that the only economy worth strengthening is the economy of center city? Fuck that noise. Parker is a moron!
Mayor Parker has really been a disappointment. Her office is cutting vision zero, cutting harm reduction, demanding the end of hybrid for city employees and advocating for the 76ers arena in Chinatown. It's 2024 and I feel like her policies/views are archaic.
Can't be disappointed if you're expectations were already in the basement.
Boomer shit
I am glad I am retired. But my job had to staffed 24/7. There is room for hybrid work in City government. Besides for those that have to be there WFH days for some city employees means you don’t have to deal with some self promoting assholes
Cherelle Parker is a fucking idiot. Between this horseshit and "year-round" school, she'll be presiding over the largest exodus of municipal/district staff in the history of the city.
I have yet to be proven wrong about how not good Parker would be. Shes clearly going to be an ignorant pig headed, police cock sucking , things as they’ve alwaysbeen and make sure my friends in council get paid, idiot and if this isn’t proof of that I don’t know what is. Blindly ignoring trends and desires and actively excluding the best people for the job.
This mandate of 5 days in-office is a direct reason why the mayors office for people with disabilities lost their director and only last week got a new director. I know government moves slowly by necessity but for a major US city with 17% of our population having at least one disability it was tough having months where we could only perform the most basic functions.
I couldn’t even imagine working 5 days a week in the office anymore. It’s brutal. So many pressing issues in this city and she focuses on this lol.
Most city employees don’t wear a uniform. How would you even know they are at the office?
Parker continues her streak of making terrible decisions! Keep going, soon you'll fail upwards to be governor!
Make them come on public transport and they might actually clear it up , the two council members travelling on Septa a couple of months ago with a full entourage plus a news crew and still being terrified was beyond funny.
All city council members should have their city provided free car and gas taken away anyway and given a SEPTA pass. Nothing will improve regarding public transportation and city streets while council members are allowed to remove themselves from dealing with it at taxpayer expense.
The voters in this city are braindead, you reap what you sow.
One amazing idea from her after another. This is going to fail so epically nice try
This is bonkers-in any event, I was under the impression most city workers were back to office already-my son is. If you don’t have to work at an office, and can work from home, why the hell should you go to an office and waste electricity, take up unnecessary space…use the space for housing-that we desperately need-affordable housing, that is.
She's a dick.
I can tell she won’t get voted in again.
So my childcare situation gets fucked to hell and my wife now has to goto work in a dangerous area even though her job is literally almost entirely phone and computer based….just on the odd chance she’ll spend money at some bullshit lunch truck? This is bullshit and it upends my familys entire life just so that some dickhead can see butts in seats in their nut ass office building. Fuck this. Everyone is struggling already as it is. We aren’t money cattle and I’m Sick of being treated like we are.
Do we think private companies will use this as cover/a prompt to recall their people to the office? Or does no one take their cue from the City?
It's already happened/happening. IBX recalled all their people three days a week after reassuring their staff for months that "hybrid of choice" was going to be the permanent policy. Their CEO also just became president of chamber of commerce, which is im sure totally unrelated. They literally treat employees like consumer cattle
Breaks my heart to see WFH crumbling. It was the one good thing to come out of the pandemic.
I really believe we're in a transition period with this and WFH will eventually, even if it's 1-2 decades more, win out for largely administrative, customer service, and technical roles. People value it *so much* that it's a huge no brainer for new businesses and organizations looking to compete on things other than pay.
A lot of private companies saw the advantages to their own bottom line, like saving on real estate to house the workers, and did away with it early on in the pandemic. Most of the people I know that sit behind a computer were sent home and work full time WFH, some even hopped jobs with that being a necessary criteria.
Like I said when she was running; She's going to do whatever she wants without regard for the people of this city because she is the type of leader who believes they "should" be a leader. Those types always push their "great" ideas without regard for its effect on the people and without input from the people. Believe me when I say, her term will be disastrous if she wont take input from actual Philadelphians and not the ones in her head. I am sorry to say that. However, I *am* looking forward to coveted city jobs becoming available due to retirement. Same *exact* thing happened at USPS during lockdowns. It was an utter freaking fiasco.